A Mid-day Hunt

By Jeff Kurrus

Today I will live out my own advice of “hunt when you can.” With work this morning and out-of-town visitors this evening, a mid-day set in the woods is all I can pull off this Friday afternoon.

That said, before these alternative hunts I am always reminded of the laydown buck, the one who showed up at 4:22 after I had laid down in a cut corn field and covered myself with stalks at 4:20; or the wet primer buck, who showed up 15 minutes after I settled in for a 10:30 hunt one morning, still trying to shake off the night before only to leave the woods shortly after following the delayed-firing of my muzzleloader; or even Matt’s doe, aptly named because my hunting partner was dead asleep two hills over during a hunt a couple years back, never hearing my gun go off at 12:15 shortly after we split following lunch together.

So I’ll see what happens today. It may make for a calm, relaxing mid-day jaunt to my stand, followed by multiple hours of little more than a few birds appearing. Or, my “hunt when you can” outing could provide just one more strange story of what can happen when you’re forced to think outside of sunrise and sunset every once in a while.